Printed circuit boards are used to provide a medium upon which electrical and electronic circuit components are mounted and interconnected to perform circuit functions. Various components, for example, memory elements, processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or programmable logic devices (PLDs) and the like may be electrically coupled to a circuit board to perform a variety of functions.
Because the functions of circuit boards may vary, the value of a specific board may likewise vary. In a typical implementation, a computer system may comprise a backplane which provides a plurality of slots into which circuit boards may be inserted via an appropriate interface. Multiple boards may be inserted into the backplane, each circuit board performing a specific function. Through the backplane, the circuit boards are interconnected and therefore, each board's function may provide inputs to other boards. Conversely each board may receive as inputs, the output of another board. Thus, the boards inserted into the backplane may be interconnected and interoperable.
The specific function performed by a circuit board determines the components that are housed within the circuit board. For example, a board may comprise a processor and a memory containing specialized software for performing the board's designed function. Such software may be proprietary and of great value to it's owner. For example, the circuit board may contain an FPGA containing proprietary circuitry and logic designed to perform a special function having high value to its developer. Moreover, the FPGA may include software in its on-chip memory resources that contain sensitive or valuable intellectual property.
The intellectual property contained within any given circuit board may represent significant research and development and have high market value. As such, some circuit boards in a system comprising multiple boards may have extremely high values in comparison with other circuit boards in the system. High intrinsic value makes these boards targets for pirating and theft of their associated intellectual property through unauthorized access to and/or tampering with on-board devices. Systems and methods for detecting tampering of circuit boards and protecting the information contained therein, are desired.